Eric Armit's World View by Eric Armit Sep 5th 2007

Even when not even in the ring it may be that the former WBA welterweight champion Ike Quartey can put the lights out for people. In Accra on August 12 Emmanuel Tagoe and Abdul Malik Jabar were contesting the national lightweight title. Tagoe was well on top and floored Jabar in the tenth and the finish looked near, however before they could start the eleventh the lights in the stadium went out. The show was abandoned and a riot broke out between rival fans. Ike was involved in the promotion and a supporter of Jabar and was allegedly heard ordering at the end of the tenth round that the lights be turned off. It's a different world over there. Eight days later Tagoe was declared the winner. A bit of a belated result, but as one Morales leaves us another returns. As Erik retires then brother Diego comes back to the scene. After almost two years out the former WBO super-flyweight champion halted Lupe Arce in four rounds in Los Mochis on August 10. Diego was rapidly putting on weight before he stopped fighting in 2005 and was up at super-featherweight for this one but may come down for later fights. Diego is still only 27 and has a 37-2 record. One of those losses was a strange one. He was giving useful Bobby Boy Velardez a beating and had him almost out when the referee halted the action. Diego's corner assumed the fight had been stopped and entered the ring, but they were wrong and Diego was promptly disqualified. The French have a good looking light-welterweight prospect in Ali Chebah. In Oporto on August 12 he beat Luiz Dos Santos on a fourth round retirement. Chebah is 21, a pro since the age of 16, has 21 wins in a row. On the same show Rafal “Braveheart” Jackiewicz outpointed Juan Martinez. Rafal lost here to both Michael Jennings and Ted Bami, but has lost only one of his last 16. Not sure of the “Braveheart” ever since I visited the William Wallace Monument and found a plastic statue of Mel Gibson there I have had an aversion to the word as it made my sporran curl! Marcos Maidana continues to look the best prospect in Argentina. On a show in Panama City on August 16 he halted Brazilian Jairo Dos Santos in two rounds. The 24 year old light-welterweight from Santa Fe has 20 wins, with 19 of those inside the distance and only one of those quick win has only gone beyond round three. An excellent match on the show saw Jose Arboleda decision Colombian Jose Mendoza to retain the WBA Fed Latin super-bantamweight title. The 25 year old Panamanian has a 23-2-1 record after going 2-2 in his first four bouts. The 35 year old Mendoza lost for the first time and drops to 21-1-1, but was out of the ring from 1999 to 2004. American heavyweight prospect Devin Vargas made it twelve wins as he outpointed Mujaheed Moore on August 16 in his hometown of Toledo. The 25 year old has all of the amateur credentials having won gold medals at the 2000 National Golden Gloves and 2002 and 2003 United States championships and in the 2004 Olympic trials beat current unbeaten pros Chazz Witherspoon, Matt Godfrey and Aaron Williams, but failed to win a medal at the Olympics. Namibia is suddenly producing some promising fighters. One of those is Paulus Moses and in Donetsk, Ukraine he retained his WBA Intercontinental lightweight title with a ninth round stoppage of Andrei Kudravtsev. Paulus has 21 wins so is worth watching. Jason Naule is another rising Namibian and in Windhoek on August 11 he retained his WBA Pan Pacific light-welterweight title with a seventh round stoppage of Pius Dipheko, Jason has eleven wins. In another bout on the Donetsk show Vlad Kravets retained hid EBU EE light-welterweight title with an eighth round stoppage of Dmitri Tarenko. This fight shows how too many titles ruin things. The EBU title bouts are usually a very high standard but the needless introduction of these titles has dropped the standards disgracefully as Tarenko only has a 6-6-1 record and matches like this devalues the titles. With the USA being such a big country “local heroes” are a necessity to keep boxing alive in some areas. In West Virginia the local hero is Verquan Kimbrough. At the Chester racetrack on August 23 Verquan won a “world” title as he outpointed Rodney Jones for the vacant IBC lightweight title. We may snort with derision at these “world“ titles, but locally it will mean something. Kimbrough has an 18-1-1 record having won gold medals in both the US Junior and Senior championships, but I don't feel he has it to make it big as a pro. There are plenty of “sons of the father's” out there and Martin Coggi is one of them. Dad Juan Martin was one of the best ever produced by Argentina winning the WBA light-welterweight title and making seven defences retiring with a 75-5-2 record. Martin, also a light-welterweight, was in action in Rosario on August 24 and halted Alejandro Ciacia in two rounds and is now 14-0-1. Still in Argentina two good youngsters extended their unbeaten runs on a show in Mendoza on August 24. Super-featherweight Jonathan Barros, 23, made it 18 wins and a draw by halting Hector Cisneros in five and 21 year old light-welterweight Daniel Brizuela went to 10-0 with a first round kayo of Nazareno Tripoli. Daniel is a former national champion and competed in the 2004 Olympics. Closing out the Argentinean notes Francisco Mora is a strange fighter. He seems to be able to go up and down in weight with ease. He lost to Robin Reid here in July 2002 as a super-middleweight ,was 170lbs when losing to Juergen Braehmer last year and down at 154 when fighting Kassim Ouma in 2006 and has been as low 152 lbs. Now 33 he outpointed Jorge Dominguez in Cordoba on August 24 and weighed 160lbs as he improved his record to 52-12. Over in Corona, California, on August 24 featherweight Juan Carlos Burgos kayoed Adam Carrera in three rounds. Juan is the nephew of the former IBF light-flyweight champion Victor Burgos. This was the first fight outside of Mexico for the 19 year old who has 15 wins and was voted Prospect of the Year in Tijuana. Carrera is no pushover as his 19-3 record shows. On the same show the former National Golden Gloves champion, middleweight James Parison, halted Tony Cannon in two rounds and has eight wins. Travis “Freight Train” Walker is also a former National Golden Gloves champion and unbeaten as a pro. In Hinckley on August 24 Travis flattened poor Doug Robertson in one round. Heavyweight Travis has 25 wins and a draw with 19 inside and is about ready to move up. Down in Sydney Australian middleweight Ben Crampton collected the vacant IBF Australasian title with a points win over Thai Dechapon Suwannalert. Ben is 29, he was out from 2003 to 2006 and now has a 20-0-1 record with that draw being in his first pro fight. On the same show, in a non-title fight, the WBF lightweight champion Allan Luxford kayoed Mike Wanpraesort in five rounds. Allan is 21-3.

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