Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Jul 12th 2007

I see where Don King and Felix Trinidad have announced that Felix wants to return to the ring. I guess the money generated by old victim Oscar de La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr may have had something to do with it. It is difficult to know who feels he is missing out most on this bonanza, King or Trinidad. King is not used to seeing so much money float past him and it points to the fact that whilst still a force he is no longer the main man. As for Felix he says he wants to fight Roy Jones or Jermain Taylor or Floyd Mayweather or Spiderman or Captain Jack Sparrow. What I am trying to say is he is here for the money, and who can blame him. Felix is still a name, but not one that Mayweather needs and as Jones is not so big a draw now and Taylor is failing to set the world on fire. It is up to King to find the big payday, and that brings us back to King not being the force he was, and certainly not in the divisions that would interest Trinidad. Perhaps neither Don or Felix recognise that they are “Yesterdays men”. No matter how much you criticise the WBC the one thing they can pride themselves on is their efforts to make boxing a safer sport and their policy of trial weights are an example. You could wish some of the other so -called sanctioning bodies did the same. A little while back a challenger for one of the WBF titles in South Africa allegedly weighed 5 kilos over the weight limit just four days before the fight but the contests still went ahead. That would never be allowed in a WBC or a British title fight and if it is true then it seems that the only safety check that concerns the sanctioning body is to ensure that the sanctioning fee is correct to the last rand and that Boxing South Africa, the body that ruins, sorry I meant runs, boxing there should be disbanded. Once again I question just how long it should take a decent fighter to make his mark. Take Polish heavyweight Albert Sosnowski. On June 8 on the Motherwell show he halted the previously unbeaten Steve Herelius in nine rounds and now has 40 wins in 41 fights. With a record like that he should be in the worlds top five, but after nine years as a pro the most he can claim is the WBF title and not even the WBO rate him in their top 15. I guess he must be waiting for the rest of the current crop of heavyweight to get too old but Oliver McCall is 42 and Evander Holifield is 44, and going strong so he can‘t rely on that, Also he may have to wait a long time as Wladimir Klitschko and Sultan Ibragimov are both 31 and Ruslan Chagaev is 28. Sosnowski for world champion in 2020 get down to Ladbrokes now. American middleweight Tyrone Brunson may have tied Edwin Valero's record of 18 first round wins in a row with his first round stoppage of Jamie Waru down in Auckland on June 8, but there is no real comparison. Of Valero's victims nine had records where they had won more than they had lost when he fought them and in his list are respected pros such as Whyber Garcia, Arman Ramazyan, Esteban Morales and Roque Cassiani. Only one of Brunson's opponents had a positive record, there are no main event or name fighters on his record and the majority of the opposition and six of them had never had a fight before meeting him. It takes power to register 18 inside the first round, even against bums, but Valero has proved he is a world champion and Brunson has proved there are even more bums around than I thought, even if he has had to go to New Zealand to find them. There were a couple of other interesting fighters on that Auckland bill in Kenyan Peter Kariuki and Algerian Mohamed Azzaoui. Kariuki defended the WBO Asian super-middleweight title and gained the vacant IBF Australasian title (Don't worry about the titles it was not a total waste of the night as I believe he also got a free entry to see Die Hard 863, if it is ever made) with a fourth round stoppage of Kari Jacobs. The Kenyan has a very ordinary 15-6-2 record but since moving down from cruiserweight he stopped seven opponents in a row and in fact 14 of his 15 wins have been stoppages or kayos. Cruiserweight Azzaoui was one of Algeria's top amateurs, winning gold medals in the 1998 African Championships and 1999 African Games and competing in the 2000 Olympics. His win on points over American Derrick Whitley took him to 21-0-2 and he retained the PABA and IBF Pan Pacific titles( he also hoped for a free ticket but when he asked for one for Pirates of The Caribbean 783 he was told not to be so silly and had to settle for his titles, it's a cruel world-and a cynical one!) Juan Carlos Villareal, a name from the distant past, is still “active”. In Kiev on June 9 he was out pointed over 12 rounds by unbeaten local Yuriy Nuzhnenko for the WBA Intercontinental welterweight title( No comment). Villarreal is now 37 and he lost here to Shea Neary for the WBU light-welterweight title in 1998. Nuzhnenko has a 26-0 record after turning pro seven years ago at the age of 24. On the same show another Ukrainian to watch, Vyacheslav Uzelkov, made it 16 wins with a first round stoppage of Hungarian Zoltan Kiss Jr. That's three first round wins in his last four fights for the previously non-puncher. A good match-up on the show in Moribor saw former Polish amateur star Aleksy Kuziemski outpoint Czech light-heavyweight Ladislav Kutil. Both fighters went in unbeaten, and it is unusual, and encouraging to see two promising fighters clash with no title at stake. Kuziemski, who won bronze and silver medals in two European Championships, now has 12 wins and Kutil drops to 16-1. Another clash of unbeaten fighters ended disappointingly as the bout between Leonard Bundu and Lucian Abis in Milan on June 15 ended in a technical draw in round three. The vacant Italian welterweight title was at stake and time may be running out for Bundu. The Sierra Leone-born southpaw was an outstanding amateur. A former Italian national champion he won a bronze medal in the 1999 World Championships and competed in the 1997 and 2003 Worlds and the 2000 Olympics but was 30 before he turned pro in 2005. He had won eleven in a row before this fight. Abis, who was on the floor in the first round is 27 and has a 20-0-1 record now. Another good match up for a national title saw world rated straw weight Sammy Gutierrez lose his Mexican title on points to Raul Garcia in Mexicali on June 15. These two had drawn in a twelve rounder in June 2006 but this time Garcia came out ahead. Gutierrez drops to 18-2-2 and Garcia is now 19-0-1. Taking a chance seemed to be catching as touted lightweight Wes Ferguson tackled Edner Cheery in Tampa on June 13. Ferguson, trained by Roger Mayweather and with a 16-1-1 record going in, took a risk in looking to make a name for himself, but the “Cherry Bomb” came out on top with a points win and goes to 22-5-2 after winning only three of his first seven fights. Edner lost to the new IBF light-welterweight champion Paul Malignaggi last time out and as he comes from the Bahamas is eligible to fight for the Commonwealth title. Another clash where fighters had plenty to lose saw the Bahamas find another winner as Jermain Mackey halted Kirt Sinnette in two rounds in Nassau on June 22. Both super-middleweights are over 6'0” tall and both can bang. Sinnette, from Trinidad and Tobago was a slight favourite due to his 14 wins but southpaw Mackey turned him over. Jermain has 14 wins against a single points loss to top Canadian Jean Pascal in Canada. He is trained by the former Commonwealth bantamweight champion Ray Minus who beat Donnie Hood and Ray Carroll in title defences here in 1998 but was unsuccessful in challenges for the WBO and IBF titles. Mackey is on a good run having kayoed Anibal Acevedo and halted previously unbeaten Julius Fogle in his previous two starts. The only good news for boxing in Trinidad & Tobago-if you can call it good news-is that their heavyweight hope Kertson Manswell has signed with Don King and will soon be active in the USA. Kertson has 13 wins. Situation was normal on the under card to the Zsolt Erdei-George Blades WBO title fight in Budapest on June 16 as all of the favoured fighters scored wins without really being tested. Top hope may be the Uzbek-born Russian cruiserweight Alex Alexeev who kayoed Argentinean Hector Avila in one round. The 26 year bold southpaw has won eleven in a row, only going the distance once. Avila is not renowned for a having a good chin, but Alexeev, a World, European and World Military gold medallist has been impressive. Another one to watch may be Hungarian super-bantamweight Zsolt Bedak who made it six wins by halting Kemal Plavci in two rounds. Bedak beat the highly-touted Mexican Abner Mares three times in 2004 as an amateur including eliminating him in the Olympics . Super-middleweights Karoly Balzsay and Dmitri Sartison extended their winning runs. Hungarian southpaw Balzsay kayoed Brazilian Jose Hilton Dos Santos in five and Kazak-born Russian Sartison out pointed Belgian veteran loser Mike Algoet. Balzsay is 16-0 and Sartison is 20-0. Two former visitors to these shores scored wins on a show in Lafayette on June 16. At light-middleweight Chad Broussard kayoed Ty Wiggins in two and at middleweight Jason Papillion halted Charles Hammac in three. Now 36, Chad was here in 1989 and 19990 when he beat Frankie Foster and George Jones in the North East. Jason, who is 37, was here in 1998 beating Michael Alexander and losing to Howard Clarke. Strangely Papillion's hometown is Broussard. Neither fighter is going anywhere now, but they help keep pro boxing alive down in Louisiana. A big upset in Miami on June 22 saw Mexican Julio Cesar Garcia beaten on a majority decision by Troy Browning at light-middleweight. The 20 year old 6'0” tall Garcia, weighing his heaviest yet as a pro, dropped to 40-3( imagine that 43 fights already and just 20) losing to a 39 year old Browning. Southpaw Browning turned pro in 1991 and ran up a 17-0-1 record before disappearing from the scene in 1998. Since his return he has won three more bouts, but there was nothing to indicate he would stop the march of the young Mexican. That's boxing for you. On the same show Colombian welterweight Richard Gutierrez out pointed Luciano Perez. Gutierrez has a 21-1-1 no contests record , losing only to Joshua Clottey and he stopped Teddy Reid last time out. Puerto Rican super-bantamweight Juan Manuel Lopez looks a sure thing to make it to the top and he moved to 18 wins, 16 inside when he halted the Brazilian veteran Giovanni Andrade in one round in San Juan on June 22. The 5'7” southpaw is a can't miss and may the best thing to come out of Puerto Rico since Miguel Cotto. However, on the same card, and very much in the shadow of Lopez, Roman “Rocky” Martinez showed that he might be a sleeper who is also worth watching. The 24 year old super-featherweight halted experienced Genaro Trazancos in three rounds to make it 16 wins and a draw. Prospects: I have to go with two I have already mentioned in the column: Alex Alexeev-26 year old southpaw cruiserweight. Born Tashkent, Uzbekistan but is a Russian citizen. Top amateur European Junior champion in 1999, Russian Champion 2002/03, World Military champion 2002/03, European champion 2004 and also won gold medals at top tournaments such as Feliks Stamm, Strandjata, Gee Bee and Chowdry Cup. Eleven wins in eleven fights with ten inside the distance, including Lee Swaby Juan Manuel Lopez-Another southpaw. Just turned 24 years old. Puerto Rican with 18 wins 16 inside the distance. Five times Puerto Rican champion but missed out on the big ones as an amateur getting a silver in the 2001 Pan American Championships (not the Pan Am Games), bronze in the Central Americans and competed in the 2003 Pan Am Games and 2004 Olympics. Boxing since he was ten he looks the goods.

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