The World this Week by Kevin Taylor Mar 16th 2008

A look at the action from around the boxing world over the past weekend.  Results with relevance to British boxing are in bold. Irish eyes were smiling around America as a couple of shows featured Irish boxers ahead of St Patrick's Day tomorrow. on Saturday night at The Theater in Madison Square Garden, James Moore improved to 15-0 outpointing Juan Carlos Candelo over eight rounds. Elsewhere on the bill Dublin's Oisin Fagan stopped Brian Carden in the second round to register his 21st win and Simon O'Donnell knocked out Chris Overbey in the second as well. Over in Boston, Michael Sweeney could only draw with David Williams, while Patrick Hyland knocked out Mike Dobbs in the first round and another Irishman Jonathan O'Brien knocked out Salah Zabian in the fourth round. Gary 'Spike' O'Sullivan made it two out of two with a first round knock out of Robert Harris, O'Sullivan's first win had been against Pontefract's Peter Dunn in January. Nicky Cook conquerer Steven Lueveno survived a fourth round knockdown to win a unanimous decision and defend his WBO featherweight title for the second time at Mandalay Bay on Saturday. Luevano won the title by stopping Dagenham's Cook at the 02 Arena in July 2007, knocking out Cook in the 11th round. Two judges had it 119-109 for Luevano and the third had it 118-109. The fight was on the undercard of the rematch between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny Pacquiao which Manny Pacquiao won by split decision to pick up the WBC super-featherweight title. His next bout is due to be for the WBC lightweight title held by David Diaz who was also in action beating Ramon Montano in a non-title fight. Natascha Ragosina left the ring with seven belts, yes seven!, after her unanimous points win over Teresa Perozzi in Magdeburg, Germany. Ragosina already held five titles but added two more to her collection following this one sided win. In another women's bout on the undercard Esther Schouten won over six rounds against Zsofia Bedo. Schouten beat Derby's Juliette Winter in January 2004, stopping her in four in the Netherlands. In Pisa, Dario Cichello defended his Italian light-heavyweight title for the second time stopping Vincenzo Imparato in the fifth of the scheduled ten rounder. A former opponent of Imparato, Marcus Beyer made a return to the ring on Friday night beating Murat Mahmudov over eight rounds, all three judges scoring it 80-72. It was Beyer's first fight since October 2006 when he was knocked out in three by Mikkel Kessler for the WBC and WBA super-middleweight titles. Beyer of course is well known to British fans, he won WBC back in 1999 by beating Telford Richie Woodhall and lost it against Bristol's Glenn Catley in May 2000. Former Audley Harrison victim Rob Calloway picked up his sixty-ninth win against Juan Carlos Robles in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Robles was stopped in the 8th. Calloway had to quit on his stool after four rounds against our Audley, after suffering a broken jaw. Lolengo Mock who put David Haye down when they met picked up the vacant European Union super-middleweight title when he claimed a split decision win over Mouhamed Ali Ndiaye in Odense, Denmark. Top of the bill in Munich warming up for his European title fight was Sinan Samil Sam, who had a routine two round stoppage of Ratko Draskovic to pick up the coveted WBC Mediterranean heavyweight title. Draskovic has losses against Matt Skelton, Audley Harrison and Danny Williams on his CV, Williams of course was also beaten by Samil Sam back in 2003. Eugenio Monteiro who was once based in Preston lost a points decision over eight rounds to Salvatore Annunziata in Italy. Former contender and Joe Calzaghe foe Peter Manfredo, jr. stopped Shane Benfield in six rounds in Rhode Island. While Jaime Clampitt ecked out a majority decision against Belinda Laracuente to retain her IWBF lightweight title. Clampitt holds a win and a loss against Britain's first lady of boxing, Jane Couch. While his brother was beating Marquez, Bobby Pacquiao didn't even last a round aginst the unbeaten Urbano Antillon, getting knocked out in the first of their contest at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Contary to earlier reports on BBN, Uganda's Danny Lutaaya didn't make his comeback after ten years out of the ring in Manchester, he in fact was in the corner for Romanian Gheorghe Ghiompirica. Scott Quigg beat Ghiompirica over four rounds, apologies for the error.

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