Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Aug 10th 2007

There is a tendency to look upon the proliferation of “world” titles as a fairly recent disease, but it isn't. As far back as the 1890's there were multiple title claimants(I remember them well) and in the 1930's, 40's and 50's States such as Californian, Maryland, Michigan and particularly New York had their own “world” champions and in addition the National Boxing Association and Europe also had their “world” title fights. The current battle of the sanctioning bodies in fact goes back to 1968 when the WBC was formed. Here endeth the history lesson! However ,today things have reached a ridiculous level. In a recent column I pointed out just how many different “world” titles Ricky Hatton had defended/ won recently but Roy Jones has him beat. Roy's 2004 fight with Antonio Tarver was for the WBC, WBA, IBO, vacant WBF, IBA and the old NBA light-heavyweight titles. In the same year Jones fought Glen Johnson with the IBF title on the line. In his return with Tarver in 2005 it was for the IBO and now vacant NBA and in 2006 with Prince Badi Ajamu it was the WBO North American title and finally his fight last month with Anthony Hanshaw was for the IBC crown. Nine different sanctioning bodies. All of these fights were good draws with or without a title and to pay six sanctioning fees for the first Tarver fight is so stupid. The stupidity continues with the Alex Arthur situation. How can you have an “interim” champion when the real champion is active and defending his title. The whole idea of an “interim” champion was that he would fill in when the real champion is indisposed long term. That has been bastardised to just be an excuse to ensure that the sanctioning fees keep rolling in and nothing more. One of the side-effects of so many “world” titles has been the devaluation of national titles. This has also been impacted by the reduction in active fighters. Take the recent fight for the vacant Italian featherweight title. The winner David Chianella was having his 18th fight, reasonable enough, but the guy in the other corner-Luca Maggio- was having his seventh. It is even more noticeable in Australia. In the list of their national champions there are: cruiserweight Daniel Ammann(11 fights), light-middleweight Ryan Waters(9),light-welterweight Dean Byrne(7), lightweight Leonard Zappavigna(9, and one of the best prospects in Australia) super-bantamweight Davey Brown(9) and bantamweight Fred Mundraby(4). In contrast no British champion has had less than 20 fights. We have the same “world” title disease, but the national title still retains some of it's prestige and we have more active professionals. If you stuck Paul Williams, Kermit Cintron, Kelly Pavlik, Luis Collazo, Ebo Elder, Shamone Alvarez and Miguel Espino into competition with each other as amateurs who would win the gold medal? The answer is none of them. They all competed in the 1999 Police Athletic League Championships at 147lbs and none of them even made it to the semi-finals. The gold medal went to Dante Craig who went on to compete in the 2000 Olympics. But amateur achievements don't always mean professional success. Craig turned pro as a welterweight in 2001 and in his last fight in December 2006 at light-heavyweight lost inside a round to a guy with a 5-13 record. Where did he go wrong? Again to show unpredictable amateur form can be in the 1997 National Golden Gloves 156lbs class Cleveland Corder won the gold medal beating Jermain Taylor in the final. Now Taylor is world middleweight champion and Corder, “The Christian Warrior”,is an average fighter with two stoppage losses against “The Contender” fighter Jesse Brinkley. Both Abner Mares and Vicente Escobedo were good enough as amateurs to get to the Olympics and are doing well as pros. In McAllen on July 6 Mares out pointed Saul Gutierrez and Escobedo went ten rounds for the first time in decisioning Carlos Diaz. Mexican Mares, a 21 year old bantamweight, has 13 wins. Escobedo, a super-featherweight, is 14-1. In the main event Mexican Martin Honorio took a split verdict over useful Joe Morales. Honorio is the only guy to beat Steve Luevano as a pro, out pointing him back in 2005, and being unbeaten since then in a 24-3-1 record. Boxing is enjoying a minor recovery in Guyana. In Georgetown on July 7 Denny “Deadly” Dalton won the vacant national middleweight title with a points win over a boxer with two distinctly British/ boxing names in Winston Pompey. Denny was halted inside a round here by Gary Lockett in 2001 but in his last two fights had won and lost against former WBA welterweight champion Andrew Lewis for the national light-middleweight title. There is also the possibility of a bit of a burst of activity in Romanian. Generally their best fighters have gone to Canada to find fame and the lesser lights have been used as fodder throughout Europe. However on a show in Constanta ton July 12 three former top amateurs all scored wins. At super-featherweight Viroel Simion of the famous fighting clan decisioned Fernando Guevara for his fifth win. Featherweight Eugen Sorin Tanasie moved to 13-0 with a points win over Venezuelan veteran Edison Torres and heavyweight Lucien Bot halted Jevenijs Stamburskis in four to go to 8-0-1. Simion was European Cadet and Junior champion, won a bronze medal in the European Championships and reached the quarter-finals in the 2004 Olympics. He has five wins . As I mentioned before Leonardo Zappavigna is considered one of the best young fighters in Australia and he moved to nine wins with a first round kayo of Jun Geraldine in Sydney on July 13. Lenny won the Australian lightweight title in his fifth fight and is still only 19. On the same show Jamie Pittman out pointed Nonoy Gonzales with the PABA and vacant WBO Asia Pacific middleweight title at stake. He already holds the WBF super-middleweight title and has 14 wins, and was again an outstanding amateur. Mexican Gamaliel Diaz was once very close to being Nicky Cook's opponent instead of Steve Luevano. However a kayo loss to Robert Guerrero ruined that. Diaz is back in the picture after an excellent, if controversial, points win over the previously unbeaten Dominican Elio Rojas in Gomez Palacio on July 13. This was an eliminator for the WBC title so Diaz moves forward in the pecking order. That loss to Guerrero, who he had previously beaten and who has gone on to win the IBF title, is his only loss in his last 20 fights. Rojas had won 19 in a row and will come again. In other fights on the Gomez Palacio show Lorenzo “Explosivo” Trejo halted Erik Ramirez in seven at straw weight and Antonio Lozada kayoed Roberto Resendiz in one round. Trejo has an ordinary looking record at 28-15 mainly due to a very brave management. He had a spell of 8 losses in 9 fights with world champions Jorge Arce, Juan Antonio Aguirre, Fernando Montiel, Hawk Mathebula, Eric Morel, Roberto Leyva and Alex Sanchez in the list. He has lost only two of his last 18 and one of those was to Eagle Kyowa for the WBC title. Lozada is a 5'10” tall lightweight with 10 wins inside the distance, 8 in the first round.. Down in Argentina welterweight Roberto Reque padded his record with a fourth round kayo of Hernando Magallanes in Santa Cruz on July 13. Reque has 29 wins, 1 loss and 2 no decisions which sounds impressive but his loss was on a stoppage against Sebastian Lujan who lost here to Jamie Moore in 2000. Back to the ex amateur stars in one DeAndry Abron. In Tunica on July 14 the Youngstown light-heavyweight kayoed Marvin Hunt in one round and has 13 wins in 14 fights. As an amateur he won a sack full of titles including Army, Inter Services, United States, Police Athletic League and National Golden Gloves but was over 30 before he turned pro which is far too late. On the same show welterweight Ramon Arellano out pointed Anthony Bowman. Arellano's record is either 16-1 or 28-1 depending on your viewpoint. 12 of his wins came in fights which were not supervised by a recognised Commission , so as far as the Association of American Commissions and their official record keepers-Fight Fax- are concerned they don't count. Panamanian Mauricio Martinez found this country a happy hunting ground as he won the vacant WBO bantamweight title here in September 2000 by stopping Lester Fuentes and made a successful defence by halting Esham Pickering in a round in Sheffield three months later. That is water long under the bridge and the veteran is finding life a bit less rosy. On July 14 in Panama City he lost split verdict to Nicaraguan bantamweight William Gonzalez who now has a 20-2 record and takes Mauricio's place in the ratings.

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